1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to beehive honeycomb frames, and more particularly to injection molded frame structures onto which honeycomb foundation plates can be selectively mounted and dismounted.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The current stresses and imbalances in the world's ecology find various expressions amongst which is a drastically falling bee population. The concerns over this mechanism associated with much of our plant fertility are now widely shared and all sorts of inspections and studies are being focused on finding the exact cause of this critical depopulation of the bees. While the specific question is as yet not fully answered, the general consensus, both now and in the past, has been centered around biological pathogens as the infective agent that most likely is causing these massive bee losses.
The nature of the evolved cooperative patterns is such that once one member of the hive is exposed to the infectious agent the disease, parasite or resulting toxin is quickly spread within the close quarters of the hive, resulting in catastrophic consequences. One suspected mechanism for this spread is the infection transfer on the honeycomb frame and the most current wisdom or convention addressing these health concerns has been a three to five year honeycomb frame replacement program, a large expense and burden associated with the maintenance of a healthy bee population, an expense that could be mitigated to a substantial extent by conservative measures of cleaning and re-use of these frames.
While the prior art is replete with various mechanisms directed at a singular parasite or infective pathogen, exemplified by the teachings of U.S. Pat. No. 7,767,234 to Probasco; U.S. Pat. No. 6,620,025 to Scheuneman et al.; and others; mechanisms for sterilizing the air flows through a bee hive as in US published patent application 2008/0064298 by Junqueira de Souza et al; U.S. Pat. No. 4,877,990 to Florenzano, Jr.; and others; and those applying various antimicrobial surface coatings in a bee hive like that exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 6,096,350 to Kemp et al., each of these also entail the even larger cost and burden of a constant upkeep effort, like the maintenance of the antibacterial vapor or coating efficacy, and/or the operation of the flow generating machinery, and the like, without the much wider benefit of the above frame replacement program, and this inherently much wider benefit, therefore, now sets the proper maintenance standard.
Since the main source of persistent re-infection in a bee hive appears to be the frames that support the honeycombs that are constantly visited by the working bees and since optimal worker bee patterns are achieved at close frame spacings, these narrowly spaced structures, that are often made from porous wood over which the worker bees laden with their foraging collections traverse, become repositories and a fertile ground for all sorts of pathogens like fungi, bacteria, beetles and mites. These porous wood structures, however, like all naturally grown items, are inherently prone to deterioration and cracking resulting from these same invasive mechanisms promoted by the porous nature thereof which is then only exacerbated by periodic cleaning. The currently proposed polymeric substitute injection molded frame assemblies, as exemplified by polymeric substitutes found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,403,358 to Burgin et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,216,557 to Golde; and others. While suitable for their intended purposes, each of these substitutes is formed by interlocking hollow plastic members that include various crevasses, voids and/or cracks (which the bees then try to seal by the bee-produced sealer propolis, thus setting an elegant example of how the problem can be resolved when monetary economics are not in the equation) are rendered difficult to clean because of these same cracks and crevasses which then repeat, after their cleanings, the same surface voids that promote infection.
Besides the infection risk an accumulation of all sorts of unwanted matter further exacerbates the structural weight (or mass inertia) and the aging of the frame members, compromising even more the structural integrity when a frame, precariously supporting a honey laden honeycomb on a honeycomb foundation retained only along two of its opposed edges, is periodically spun in a centrifuge to collect the honey. This added structural mass, compromised integrity and the limited support of the foundation edges present substantial difficulties during this spinning process, and while the foregoing polymeric frame substitutes have to some extent reduced the levels of infectious contaminants, their segmented structures and the various creases present nonetheless a persisting infection challenge and a re-use and cleaning process that remains cumbersome and costly.
An easily cleaned by established procedures that remove all offending matter, integral, light-weight, fully sealed and internally foamed frame structure that easily engages all the edges of the foundation panel in the course of re-assembly after cleaning is therefore extensively desired and it is one such structure that is disclosed herein.